Jim Dalrymple.com

I overcame the stupidity of the Halifax Airport by continuing my commitment to fly Continental everywhere I go. If I was still flying Air Canada, I would be stranded like so many other people in Halifax this morning.

The Halifax airport took the one runway it has to guide planes in during fog offline for the next month or so. What does this mean? In weather that planes would normally fly, they don’t in Halifax — in or out. The dumbasses in Halifax basically set the airport down during tourist season, not to mention business trips.

I gave up flying Air Canada about two years ago because they suck so bad. Most flights are late, the staff from ticket agents to flight attendants are rude as hell and the airline basically thought treating their travelers like shit was the way to do business.

I can’t tell you how happy I was to hear they were going bankrupt! And to hear the Air Canada people on TV saying, “we don’t know why flights are down.” Oh, oh, pick me, I’ll tell you so many stories of being stranded by the airline it’s a wonder I stayed with them so long.

Anyway, on to my good luck today. When I booked this trip I could have taken the 6:30 am out of Halifax or the 7:50 am — I always take the 6:30 am to make my San Francisco connection, but I’m going to Boston today. The travel agent said it didn’t make any difference, the connection was the same. I chose to sleep and take the later flight.

When I arrived at the airport at 6:00 am the line for Continental was huge! Apparently the idiots at the airport wouldn’t let some planes land last night, so different airlines were all sending them to Continental. I waited in line for about an hour and didn’t get very far — but then someone came and took me out of line brought me to the front of the line. No explanation at all, but there I was at the front.

Two minutes later I had my boarding passes and headed outside for a smoke with lots of time to spare.

During my time in line, Air Canada continued their great service and cancelled all of their flights for the day. Dumbasses!

When I got to security, the line there was obviously huge and wasn’t moving. All of a sudden, the line starting moving very quick, which was good for me because I needed to get to my gate. No problems at all in security, I just breezed right through.

When I got to the gate, all the people from the 6:30 flight were still there. Their plane was one of the ones that wasn’t allowed to land last night. However, my plane and crew were there — shortly later, we boarded. If I had of taken that earlier flight, I would still be sitting in Halifax.

I had plenty of time in Newark for a smoke and to catch my connection to Boston. I arrived in Boston, walked right out and jumped into a cab for the drive to my hotel in the city. They had a nice smoking room all ready for me.

I walked outside and just up the street was a McDonald’s, Duncan Donuts, Starbucks and a huge guitar store.

The only bad thing was that they took my lighters at security, but that’s no big deal.

On Saturday Michael, my father and I went to see 4×4 drag races about half an hour away from the house. It was a lot of fun overall, althought the event could have been better organized.

The three of us have gone to a hockey game, stock car races and now drag racing. I know it’s a good time for Michael, but it’s just as fun for me. Dad and I used to go to the stock car races all the time, but as I got older we stopped doing things — I guess that happens.

But now, it’s like a blast from the past for me too. It’s a chance to get away from work and spend some much needed time with him and Michael.

They had several different categories of trucks racing: street, stock, pro stock, modified and one more that I can’t remember. I was thinking of taking my truck out there for the street class — by the looks of the competition, I could have kicked some serious butt.

Maybe not, but I want to race one of these days.

At any rate, it was a good time yesterday — hopefully this summer, we’ll be able to go to some more races.